Nobel laureate joins private university

Jul 08, 2019 03:11 PMHeike Schrader, Greater Zurich Area/Café Europe

The Schaffhausen Institute of Technology will start operations in September. Nobel laureate in physics Konstantin Novoselov will lend his weight to the private university as chairman of the advisory board.

Image credit: University of Manchester

Konstantin Novoselov won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 together with Andre Geim. Now, he is joining the Schaffhausen Institute of Technology (SIT) as chairman of the advisory board, according to an article in the Schaffhauser AZ newspaper. SIT initiator Serguei Beloussov introduced Novoselov to representatives from the media last week. The Nobel laureate said that he is impressed by the unique interdisciplinary concept of SIT.

Novoselov is a pioneer in graphene research and currently a professor of experimental physics at the University of Manchester. As the Schaffhauser Nachrichten newspaper reports, he will establish the New Materials research unit at SIT and will work in the premises of software firm Acronis in the beginning, where the first cohort of students will also be taught, said Acronis founder Beloussov.

According to media reports, Beloussov expects construction on the new SIT campus to begin in the next five years, and the university will eventually have space for 2,500 students. SIT’s aim is to train scientists in the field of computer science while at the same time give them the opportunity to undertake research.

“In 20 years, we will have created 2,000 to 3,000 jobs thanks to SIT,” said Beloussov, who added that SIT is currently looking for the “very best and brightest scientists” from around the world in order to establish SIT as “a serious player on the European level”.

Beloussov regards Switzerland as one of the best locations for education, and Schaffhausen is one of the best places for this in Switzerland: “There is still no university here, and the airport is only half an hour away.”

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